Sunday, September 4, 2016

OK. I've been trying to get to this piece for weeks now but haven't had a free minute to sit down with my thoughts about Hillary Clinton. Chances are you feel some kind of way about Hillary Clinton. And by "some kind of way" I don't mean warm and fuzzy. The Clintons have basically rubbed every constituency the wrong way at some point or another. Pick your controversy.

But to be fair, if Hillary Clinton has a 55% disapproval rating (give or take), you can safely attribute at least half of that to narratives concocted by Right-wing figure heads ranging from Fox News to talk radio. It's no secret that the Right has hated the Clintons for decades. The Right hated Obama too. They still do, but now that he's old news they've taken their sights off of him and redirected their focus onto Hillary Clinton. It's no wonder why Obama's favorable poll numbers have risen over the past year and change; the Right simply does not care to continue to hammer him anymore. Accordingly, there's no 24/7 anti-Obama narrative out there on the airwaves for the media to run with. Don't get me wrong, they still hate Obama, they've just moved on to hating Hillary.

Which brings us back to Hillary. Now, as I was saying, at least half of Hillary's unfavorables are due to a 24/7 Right-wing narrative that likes to beat the dead horse of Benghazi, E-mails, Benghazi, E-mails, Benghazi, E-mails...ad nauseum ad infinitum. We get it. The Right doesn't like Hillary and thinks she's the devil reincarnate. OK. Fine. But putting that to the side, there are legitimate flaws with the Clintons and, specifically, with Hillary.

We could go down the list of legitimate political faux pas committed by Hillary Clinton, but they all center around the same general theme: Hillary Clinton represents the old guard of politics. She is not a new face like Barack was in 2008. Nor is she a revolutionary like Bernie Sanders who wanted to shake up the system. No. Rather, Hillary Clinton plays the game as it exists. Nothing more, nothing less. She is the embodiment of status quo. She will, more or less, keep the system in its current form over the next 4 or 8 years. Now, if you like the current system we have, then this is good news for you. But if you don't like the system, well then you're probably not as ecstatic about the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency.

Normally, this would not be enough to win the White House. But this is far from a normal election. Her opponent, Mr. Donald J. Trump, has gone so far off the rails that nobody -- not even his own team -- knows what to do with him anymore. While it's true that the 270 electoral college maps tends to favor your generic Democrat over your generic Republican, Trump is not helping himself with his repeated self-inflicted wounds. He seems intent on handing Hillary the White House in spite of his claims to want it for himself (many have speculated that his is more of a brand-building exercise for Trump than an actual presidential campaign).

As of today's post, FiveThirtyEight has placed a 71% chance that Hillary wins the 2016 election this November, while Trump only holds a 28% chance to win. Granted, these figures could change if a drastic element is introduced into the race. But barring, that, we're likely looking at a Hillary Clinton presidency for the next 4 years.

Hillary Clinton - She Has Issues But You Kinda Have to Agree She's Probably Gonna Be President

OK. I've been trying to get to this piece for weeks now but haven't had a free minute to sit down with my thoughts about Hillary Clinton. Chances are you feel some kind of way about Hillary Clinton. And by "some kind of way" I don't mean warm and fuzzy. The Clintons have basically rubbed every constituency the wrong way at some point or another. Pick your controversy.

But to be fair, if Hillary Clinton has a 55% disapproval rating (give or take), you can safely attribute at least half of that to narratives concocted by Right-wing figure heads ranging from Fox News to talk radio. It's no secret that the Right has hated the Clintons for decades. The Right hated Obama too. They still do, but now that he's old news they've taken their sights off of him and redirected their focus onto Hillary Clinton. It's no wonder why Obama's favorable poll numbers have risen over the past year and change; the Right simply does not care to continue to hammer him anymore. Accordingly, there's no 24/7 anti-Obama narrative out there on the airwaves for the media to run with. Don't get me wrong, they still hate Obama, they've just moved on to hating Hillary.

Which brings us back to Hillary. Now, as I was saying, at least half of Hillary's unfavorables are due to a 24/7 Right-wing narrative that likes to beat the dead horse of Benghazi, E-mails, Benghazi, E-mails, Benghazi, E-mails...ad nauseum ad infinitum. We get it. The Right doesn't like Hillary and thinks she's the devil reincarnate. OK. Fine. But putting that to the side, there are legitimate flaws with the Clintons and, specifically, with Hillary.

We could go down the list of legitimate political faux pas committed by Hillary Clinton, but they all center around the same general theme: Hillary Clinton represents the old guard of politics. She is not a new face like Barack was in 2008. Nor is she a revolutionary like Bernie Sanders who wanted to shake up the system. No. Rather, Hillary Clinton plays the game as it exists. Nothing more, nothing less. She is the embodiment of status quo. She will, more or less, keep the system in its current form over the next 4 or 8 years. Now, if you like the current system we have, then this is good news for you. But if you don't like the system, well then you're probably not as ecstatic about the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency.

Normally, this would not be enough to win the White House. But this is far from a normal election. Her opponent, Mr. Donald J. Trump, has gone so far off the rails that nobody -- not even his own team -- knows what to do with him anymore. While it's true that the 270 electoral college maps tends to favor your generic Democrat over your generic Republican, Trump is not helping himself with his repeated self-inflicted wounds. He seems intent on handing Hillary the White House in spite of his claims to want it for himself (many have speculated that his is more of a brand-building exercise for Trump than an actual presidential campaign).

As of today's post, FiveThirtyEight has placed a 71% chance that Hillary wins the 2016 election this November, while Trump only holds a 28% chance to win. Granted, these figures could change if a drastic element is introduced into the race. But barring, that, we're likely looking at a Hillary Clinton presidency for the next 4 years.

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